Winner take All
by mabelreid
Summary: One Shot Follow up to "The Charity Auction." Just what kind of date has Reid planned for Emily. Read and find out.


_**Disclaimer: see my profile**_

_**A/n a few of you asked nicely, so here's the date Emily bought with Reid. Please enjoy!**_

Emily sighed as she rinsed out her royal blue coffee cup that read FBI in gold on its side. She pulled a couple of paper towels from the holder and wiped it out.

Another Friday night had arrived, and she didn't have anyone to go home to or go out with for some much needed stress relief.

_It's your fault… You should've said yes to the cute agent in organized crime. _

Agent Harrison had a crooked grin and twinkling blue eyes. He also had a great body and a wonderful sense of humor. Garcia called him the Adonis of organized crime. He seemed nice enough and according to Garcia had recently broken up with his girlfriend.

She sighed again and walked out of the break room to her desk. The bullpen lacked its usual noise as it had just turned six pm.

Agent Harrison lacked a few things, like puppy dog brown eyes, wavy hair falling into his eyes, and an innocent naïve air. Who could compete with magicians hands, and a face sculpted by God on his very best day?

Her coffee cup went back to its usual place at her desk. She shut off the computer and picked up her coat and bag.

_Call him… You paid for the date. Stop waiting around for him. You're the daughter of an Ambassador. You don't wait around for things… You go and get them._

She sighed for the third time and pulled on her coat. She reached into her left side pocket for her phone and found something else instead. The small packet she found opened up to contain a crystal pendant shaped like a star with a delicate gold chain.

"What the hell…"

The star sparkled in the light and her heart jumped into her throat. How did it get into her coat pocket? She shook open the packet and a small piece of paper fell onto her desk. She unfolded it and sat down to read it.

_**Thou art lovelier than all the stars in the winter's sky. **_

_**To find the next clue in thy quest, ask the man with the scar. **_

Her hands shook as she put the pendant around her neck. Her face stretched with a wide smile as she reread the little note. He knew she'd recognize his handwriting so a signature was unnecessary. The man with the scar was an easy clue. She picked up her bag and hurried up to the elevator.

"Hey Emily… Where's the fire." JJ said as she came around the corner to the bullpen.

"Can't talk now JJ. I have to be somewhere."

"But -"

The elevator doors opened and Emily disappeared inside.

"What's going on?" Garcia asked.

"I think she found the pendant." JJ said with a grin.

"Then I better get on the phone."

---

Emily parked her car in front of "The Silver Star," a private and exclusive club she belonged to because of being a Prentiss.

The music ran to blues and jazz. The clientele wore dinner jackets and fancy dresses. She walked past the dance floor to the bar. She met her reflection in the huge star shaped mirror behind the bartender.

"Well, if it ain't my favorite Special Agent."

"Hey Sonny…"

The bartender winked at her as he mixed a chocolate martini for the plump middle-aged blonde woman at the end of the bar.

"Looking good Agent Prentiss… When are you going to marry me and live the good life?"

She laughed. Sonny was seventy years old and as spry as a man half his age. He worked the bar and mixed drinks like he'd grown up on the movie set of "Cocktail."

"Sorry Sonny, I'm afraid I'm not enough woman for you."

"I don't know about that. I think you got your eye on someone younger and good looking. That's okay…" He laughed. "When you come to your senses, I'll be here."

He ducked under the bar and popped back up with a square box wrapped in gold with a black ribbon. He handed it to her with a note. "This is for you… What did you do for this guy that rates a two pound box of Godiva chocolates?" He winked at her.

"It's not what you think," but her face got hot.

"Uh… Huh… He's a lucky man."

"Thanks Sonny, I'll see you later."

"I'll be waiting!" He called after her.

She took the box to her car and opened it. Sonny knew his candy boxes. It was Godiva all right. She sighed, tried not to drool at the smell and sight of the box full of exquisite chocolate truffles. If she started, she wouldn't stop until the box was half-empty. She decided to read the next note instead and save the chocolate for later.

_**They say there's no place like home. **_

_**The next step on your journey starts with where you lay your head. **_

----

She hurried inside her apartment and let the door slam behind her in her haste. She nearly forgot the alarm, ran back and turned it off. She looked around the first floor of her brownstone, but no one sat in the living room or waited in the kitchen.

She ran up the steps to the bedroom and pushed open the door. Moonlight streamed into the room through the open curtains. Something lay on her bed. She flicked on the lights and stood staring at the dress lying spread out on the comforter covering the bed. The dress, a deep violet in color hit, just above her knees when she held it up to her body. It flared out at the hips with a tight bodice and spaghetti straps. The shoes and silk wrap matched the dress. She undressed and found that everything fit perfectly.

_How did he get in here and do all this? _

She just finished fixing her lipstick and hair when the doorbell rang.

Reid stood on the other side of the door when she opened it. "Hi!"

He looked her up and down going very red in the face. "You look great."

"Thanks… So how did you pull this off and how did you know I would be dateless and depressed on a Friday night. "

"Garcia and JJ helped me." He squeaked. "I flashed my badge at "The Silver Star. Sonny's a funny man." JJ has a key to your place. You gave it to her last year after what happened to us in Colorado.

"Oh right… I forgot. Um, do you want to come in?"

"Oh no, I made reservations for dinner at The Potomac River Grill. Is that okay?"

"Yeah," She reached up and played with the crystal pendant around her neck. "You didn't have to do all this."

"I wanted to do something nice." He said, twisting at the tie he wore with a dark blue suit and a lighter blue dress shirt.

"Thanks," She leaned over and kissed his cheek.

----

"Now that was a meal. I haven't had that much to eat at one setting for a long time. I'm a lousy cook for myself." Emily said.

"I live on take out." Reid admitted. "I can't cook at all."

"So you're saying that geniuses have their limitations."

Reid choked on his glass of wine. "Well yeah… I don't know everything. I can't do everything. That would be impossible."

"I'm glad… You'd be too much like a cyborg or robot." She kidded.

"Do you want dessert?" He changed the subject.

"No… I'm looking forward to a couple of those truffles you gave me."

"Okay."

"You can have dessert if you want it."

"No, just coffee," He said going a bit pink in cheeks.

"Why doesn't that surprise me?"

He gave her a small smile. "What can I say? I like coffee."

"It's okay with me," She reached over and took his hand. "What else are we going to do tonight?

He grinned. "It's a surprise."

"Do I get a hint?"

"No!"

"Come on Reid…" She whined.

"No! You'll see soon enough."

She sat back in her chair. "I'll share my truffles with you."

He pretended to think about it for a few minutes. "Um… no, you have to wait and see."

"What happened to sweet, kind Reid that never teases me?"

"He went on vacation for the night."

Her eyebrows went into her bangs. "Did you just make a joke?"

He looked so confused that she laughed. "Okay… I'll wait and see.

----

"So… What do you think?" He asked as he stood next to her.

"I don't know. It sort of looks like a herd of horses and pigs in a hurricane." She said studying the painting in front of her.

"Aren't you supposed to try and get something out of the picture?" Reid asked with quotations in his tone as another couple walked by carrying glasses of champagne.

"That's what they tell me, but personally I like paintings that actually look like something."

"Oh, I'm sorry. I should have taken you to a different art gallery. I just wanted you to enjoy the show because you didn't get to bid on the art you wanted. You wasted your money on me."

She stared at him. "You listen to me Spencer Reid. I bid for you because I wanted to go out with you. I didn't give up anything." Her words filled his heart with ice.

"You did?" He squeaked. "But I thought that you just bid so that those other ladies didn't -"

"Reid," She interrupted when an older man with graying hair looked like he was attempting to listen into her conversation. "Can we talk about this later?"

He nodded looking very confused. She surveyed the gallery and found a painting that looked like something familiar. "Look at that one." She pointed it out to him.

The artist had painted a seascape with a full moon in the dark sky and stars sprinkling with a background of water foaming up on a black sand beach. Gold, purple and black made shadows from the moonlight in the rendering of the sea.

"It's beautiful." She said.

"It reminds me of you." Reid said, blushing scarlet.

----

"It's so pretty here." Emily said as the stood looking at the Christmas lights around the Lincoln Memorial."

"Are you mad at me?" Reid said nervously.

"No! Why would I be mad at you? This is the best date I've had in a long time."

He looked at her cheeks, gone pink in the lights from the cold air. She stood shivering, but didn't seem to want to go in out of the cold.

"I thought in the gallery I messed it up with talking about the auction.

"Reid, you really don't get it do you?"

She took both his gloved hands in hers and squeezed them. "I bid for you because I really like you Spencer Reid. I didn't know how else to get something going with you. You're so damn shy and I knew you'd never ask me out."

"You set the whole thing up for me?" He asked looking more confused than ever. "Why?"

"Because you're cute, sweet, smart, funny and kind. You do magic tricks and cheat at poker…"

"I do not!"

She stared at him until he dropped his eyes. "Okay, I count cards; that's not cheating." He insisted.

"Tell that to the casino owners in Vegas."

"Emily!"

"I'm just saying that I like you very much and I'd like to see if this, whatever it is, goes anywhere."

"Um… Okay!"

"Is that a yes?"

"Yes…"

Emily leaned over and kissed him gently on the lips. "I'm glad because I'm freezing and there's a box of chocolates in my place with our names written all over it."

"No peas," he asked seriously.

"Maybe, if you ask nicely."


End file.
